On 3 October 1839, in the presence of Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, the Naples-Portici line was inaugurated, Italy's first double-track railway line with a total length of 7.2 km. With the advent of the Unification of Italy (1861), the system of railroads consisted of approximately 2,700 km: building railroads meant connecting Italians and were, in the collective imagination, the emblem of national unity. 

Many symbols of Italy's development link the railways. It is the case of the "Porrettana" line (1864), which crossed the Apennines for the first time, overcoming Italy's open and often treacherous geographical constitution.